The present invention relates to data processing by digital computer, and more particularly to rendering the user interface of a software application.
Some applications implement user interfaces (UIs) in a client program, e.g., a Web browser, running in a client-server architecture. The UIs typically include controls operable by a user to interact with the applications. Controls can include buttons, pop-up menus, pull-down menus, dialog boxes, scroll bars, and any other controls that enable the user to view application data, invoke application functionality, and otherwise interact with an application. Each control has an associated control state, and the user interface has an associated UI state. The control states and the UI state can change based on user interaction. A visual representation of the user interface is generated by rendering the associated UI state. The process of rendering the UI state can include generating a data structure, e.g., an HTML-DOM (Hypertext Markup Language—Document Object Model) tree that represents the UI state.
User interaction with the controls can cause a change in the control states and the UI state. Typically, a new visual representation for the user interface is generated whenever the user changes to a new UI state by interacting with the controls.